Chapter 4.2 Develop and maintain professional communication
Background information
The key to every successful business is effective communication. It underpins efficient transfer of information and knowledge, the development of positive relationships and the creation of a productive work and family environment.
Improving communication can have positive and lasting benefits for work, family relationships and business performance.
Communication is a key pillar to developing a professional business approach. With strong communication your family and team know and understand:
- The business vision (Chapter 1.2 in MMFS Module 1 Plan for Success),
- Current business position and short-term goals and expectations (Chapter 1.1 in MMFS Module 1 Plan for Success),
- Their role within the business and it’s connection to the overall game plan,
- The way your business operates and the work expectations, these are typically communicated via policies and procedures (Chapter 4.6).
Communication is essential to a successful workplace culture (Chapter 4.1) as solid communication ensures all in the team understand what is expected of them and how they can contribute to the business strategy and goals.
One challenge with communication is that we all have different expectations. It is common for farming team members to say there is a communication issue. This comment needs to be unpacked to explore what they mean by this and how the gaps can be filled. Often it is easily solved by providing an update on the short and long-term plans or a brief team meeting.
At a glance
- Improving communication can have positive benefits for work, family relationships and business performance.
- Clear communication ensures your whole team and family are on-board with your vision. Your vision is connected to your operational goals and that is connected to individual work plans.
- Don’t assume. We need to clearly communicate the expectation or message and then check-in for understanding and support them if changes are required.
Important principles to improve communication
- Be aware of the range in communication styles as it is often the way in which a message is delivered that creates a blockage or barrier.
- Analyse yourself before trying to analyse others. Understand why difficulties arise. Be honest, logical, clear in dialogue, and if something is not working, try something new or different to reach a consensus.
- Plan and monitor your strategies to improve communication and relationships. Be positive and proactive. When faced with a difficult situation don’t follow a path of evasion, avoidance, frustration and anger.
- Always work towards creating a win-win situation where there are gains or benefits for both sides.
- Remember we are all ‘difficult people’ to someone so monitor your own behaviour and make changes where necessary.
One reminder that many leaders can benefit from is not to assume. We have probably all heard the quote “Don’t Assume, because when you do you make an ASS of U and ME”. If you assume, then your team might misunderstand the message that has been communicated or you will have overestimated their understanding of the task. This will result in disappointment when the standard you expected has not been met.
Develop a communication plan
Communication plans outline the different stakeholders within your business, types of messages you are relaying and the methods, frequency and format for communicating with them.
Tool 4.2 is a communication plan template which is useful to audit your current communication methods and then set actions to make improvements.
Communication on farms can take various forms, including written, verbal and digital (videos or apps such as WhatsApp).
Meetings
One excellent communication process is the daily (or weekly) toolbox meeting. These are a great opportunity to facilitate the two-way sharing of operational information. An example agenda to use:
- Success from the previous day/week
- Plans for today and the rest of the week
- Who is doing what
- Who needs a hand to get their job done
- Safety risks or hazards associated with the tasks coming up
These meetings may only be five to ten minutes long, but they are a great process to share information and ensure effective communication. Once they become part of your regular routine, you will find the meetings speed up as the team knows what gets discussed and what they need to raise. Be sure to brief new staff members and run a full meeting at first so they know how your toolbox meetings operate.
A stand-up meeting concept is included in signposts below.
On a quarterly basis you may get the team together to review and communicate the operational plans. This is a bigger picture meeting than the weekly or daily toolbox meetings. At these meetings you may communicate:
- Recent achievements (such as weaning percentage, sale prices, a safety risk identified and mitigated, the team working well together to complete a big job),
- Operational game plan for the next 3 months (for example, prepare for shearing)
- Upcoming training opportunities or ask a team member to report back on training they attended
- Planned holidays
- Safety issues to note
SIGNPOSTS
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